Meet Shinoda, Argentina’s 16-Year-Old Brony Graffiti Artist

Twilight Sparkle

Shinoda's Tag

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash

Pinkie Pie

Nyan Cat

Derpy Hooves

After memes, mashup videos, digital art and all the other kinds of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic tributes created by the show’s ever-expanding fanbase, it seemed inevitable that eventually there would be My Little Pony graffiti one day. And now, just such an artist has emerged.

Shinoda is a 16-year-old from Argentina who calls himself a “brony graffiti artist.” After starting with simple throw-ups, the artist started painting the characters from the Hub’s animated series My Little Pony after discovering a love for the show about three months ago. And in that time he’s already tackled the show’s stars like Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and the unofficially named Derpy Hooves around his town of Trelew.

“Basically, I paint whatever I like,” said Shinoda, whose first name is Nicolás (he declined to give his last name), in an e-mail to Wired. “Here in my city for the most part the graffiti artists think that graffiti is just ‘this, this, and this’ … nothing more. I wanna break that habit.”

Now in its third season, My Little Pony has inspired all kinds of fan art, from videos to comics to fanfic, but most of it has lived online. So Shinoda is somewhat rare for taking it to the streets. And even though he’s only been doing My Little Pony graffiti for a few months, he’s already put up five ponies (and one unrelated Nyan Cat) and has plans to do more.

But why My Little Pony?

“I like the characters a lot, their way of living is so fun, jolly and colorful,” he said. “Besides, the message that the show gives has helped me a lot to improve as a person. [It’s] showed me another way to see life.”

Check out Shinoda’s brony art in the gallery above, then head to his deviantArt page to see more of his work.

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